Athletics snap Royals’ streak

KANSAS CITY – The Oakland Athletics’ combination of Jon Lester and Josh Donaldson was too much for the Kansas City Royals.

Lester pitched six strong innings and Donaldson homered twice and drove in four runs as the Athletics won 11-3 Tuesday night, snapping the Royals’ eight-game winning streak.

Lester (13-7) has won all three of his starts since joining the A’s in a trade from Boston in a deadline deal on July 31 that sent All-Star outfielder Yoenis Cespedes to the Red Sox. Lester struck out nine and allowed three runs on six hits and two walks.

The timing of the trade was bad for the Royals, having to face Lester twice in 10 days.

“I’d rather face Cespedes four times in a game than face Lester one game,” Kansas City manager Ned Yost said. “That’s just me. That’s not taking anything away from Cespedes. He can beat you with one swing of the bat.”

The Royals have won 11 of 13, with both losses coming against Lester — who improved to 9-3 with a 1.84 ERA in 13 career starts against Kansas City.

Donaldson homered in the seventh and eighth off left-hander Bruce Chen for his third multihomer game of the season. He also added an RBI double in the first and a sacrifice fly in the fifth.

“It helps when you have contributors up and down the lineup,” Donaldson said. “We believe that it’s going to happen more times than not. We had some balls that were hit hard for outs, and then we had a lot of balls that fell in for us tonight.”

Brandon Moss had four hits, matching his career high, as the A’s finished with a season-high 20 hits.

“Obviously, we would have loved to gone out there and had a better performance from myself and the pitchers to keep us in the game,” Guthrie said. “We play 162 of these and you take them for what it’s worth. They strung together a bunch of hits and they had a tough pitcher and won the game.”

Norichika Aoki was 2-for-4 and drove in a run for Kansas City in the loss.

Texas’ sixth pitcher, Scott Baker earned the victory with two scoreless innings. The Rangers had lost all 20 games in which he appeared before Tuesday.

Mariners 6, Blue Jays 3

In Seattle, Kyle Seager and Kendrys Morales hit solo home runs, Dustin Ackley added a key two-out two-run single, and the Mariners moved into a tie for the second AL wild card with a win over Toronto.

Seattle won for the seventh time in eight games to catch Detroit in the AL wild-card race.

Munenori Kawasaki finished 0-for-3 with a walk for the Blue Jays.

Young pitched six strong innings, allowing just two hits. He yielded a first-inning run after walking Jose Reyes on four pitches and giving up Melky Cabrera’s RBI double to start the game. Young retired 14 straight after Cabrera’s double.

Toronto starter J.A. Happ gave up seven hits and struck out only one in six innings after recording 12 strikeouts in his last start.

Astros 10, Twins 4

In Houston, Chris Carter homered twice and tied a career high with five RBIs to lead the Astros to a win over Minnesota.

The game was tied in the third inning when Carter’s two-out, two-run drive to the Crawford Boxes in left field put Houston up 3-1.

Carter connected again on his next at-bat with a three-run shot in the fifth which chased Minnesota rookie starter Yohan Pino.

Collin McHugh allowed four hits and a run in six innings for the win.

Oswaldo Arcia homered twice for the Twins.

Angels 7, Phillies 2

In Anaheim, Kole Calhoun homered and had an RBI single during a seven-run sixth inning, and the Angels’ struggling offense rebounded for a victory over Philadelphia.

C.J. Wilson pitched into the seventh inning of his first victory since June 24, yielding seven hits and two walks.

Howie Kendrick drove home Albert Pujols with a tying single off Antonio Bastardo.

David Freese had a two-run double during the lengthy sixth-inning rally, which propelled Los Angeles to just its second win in seven games.